I am Malala: The Girl Who Stood up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai. 

4/5 rating. 313 pages.

Book #34 of 2020. Read May 30, 2020.

This is the amazing story of Malala, the woman who was shot by the Taliban for fighting for every person’s right to an education.

Malala is from Pakistan, where her and her father have been campaigning for years for more rights, peace between people, and environmental protection. As Malala became more famous, and even more outspoken against the Taliban’s belief that girls should not be educated, they eventually shot her – but failed to kill her. This backfired spectacularly, as it has brought education – for all people, but especially for women and the poor – into the forefront of the world’s mind.

This book truly does remind me of Anne Frank’s diary as much of it merely talks of Malala’s daily life. But I think that this actually might be even more powerful as Malala was not merely a victim of hate for being of a certain group, but for her outspokenness. Her advocacy movement was making waves even before she was targeted. She says: “I don’t want to be thought of as the ‘girl who was shot by the Taliban’ but the ‘girl who fought for education.’” This book shows that she has succeeded in this!

I think this is such a prescient book for this time in history. Between the wars in the Middle East and the continual murders being perpetrated, especially recently by cops, in America, the continual fight by Malala and her father is extremely motivating.

I love Malala’s powerful assertion:

“Let us pick up our books and our pens…They are our most powerful weapons. One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world.”

Remember it is up to us to change the world: “Meanwhile the authorities, like most people, did nothing.” Please go read this incredible book!

Quotes:

“I told [President Obama] that instead of focusing on eradicating terrorism through war, he should focus on eradicating it through education.”

“No struggle can ever succeed without women participating side by side with men. There are two powers in the world; one is the sword and the other is the pen. There is a third power stronger than both, that of women.”

“My father also saw the book as offensive to Islam but suggested: ‘First, let’s read the book and then why not respond with our own book.’ He ended by asking in a thundering voice my grandfather would have been proud of, ‘Is Islam such a weak religion that it cannot tolerate a book written against it? Not my Islam!’”

“Wearing a burqa is like walking inside a big fabric shuttlecock with only a grille to see through and on hot days it’s like an oven.”

“The Quran teaches us sabar – patience – but often it feels that we have forgotten the word and think Islam means women sitting at home in purdah or wearing burqas while men do jihad.”

“Meanwhile the authorities, like most people, did nothing.”

“‘At night our fear is strong, Jani,’ he told me, ‘but in the morning, in the light, we find out courage again.’”

“Once [my father] spoke at a big gathering and held up an audience member’s baby girl and said, ‘This girl is our future. Do we want her to be ignorant?’”

“Some people are afraid of ghosts, some of spiders or snakes – in those days we were afraid of our fellow human beings.”

“I don’t want to be thought of as the ‘girl who was shot by the Taliban’ but the ‘girl who fought for education.’”

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